


Carol's Letter

by DannyCreasy



Category: Carol (2015)
Genre: F/F, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Sex, Screenplay/Script Format
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-02-22 22:30:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23801455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DannyCreasy/pseuds/DannyCreasy
Summary: A painful goodbye with a ray of hope.This piece was originally published on Medium, March 20, 2020.
Relationships: Carol Aird/Therese Belivet
Comments: 15
Kudos: 22





	Carol's Letter

**Author's Note:**

> [](https://imgur.com/AbJln9h)  
> 

The 2015 film entitled _Carol_ has a cult following. One of its sharpest fan hooks is “Carol’s letter” or simply, “the letter;” it is a voice-over by Cate Blanchett that begins the film's ending. The attached image is the letter as it appears in screenwriter Phyllis Nagy’s script. The superfluous “like the morning sky” (highlighted by me) was dropped or cut at filming. Other than that, this text is what Blanchett read, verbatim.

An objective reader, and one not romanticized by the film, might immediately take issue with the inclusion of three clichés in the first paragraph: “there are no accidents” and “everything comes full circle” are followed by “Be grateful it was sooner rather than later.” Whaat?

“Hold your horses,” Snidely. One, you do not hear the sultry Blanchett’s “Carol-voice,” and two, allow me to set the scene. Our road-tripping protagonists, Therese Belivet, played by Rooney Mara, and Carol Aird, portrayed by Cate Blanchett, have suffered a fast-paced emotional assault. Tracked by a creepy private detective at the behest of Carol’s estranged husband, Harge, our pair’s first sexual encounter, as tender and beautiful one as ever existed, is tape-recorded. Being that it is 1952 America, Harge now has the goods to deny Carol having any contact with the couple’s daughter, Rindy, aged four. The recording was made at a motel in Waterloo, Iowa. Upon discovering the detective’s deed, Carol and Therese backtrack to Chicago. Carol will fly back to New Jersey for damage control while Carol’s dear friend Abby flies in to drive Therese back to New York in Carol’s car. After another night of lovemaking, Therese awakes to find that Abby has arrived, and Carol is gone. The viewer does not know for sure, but obviously, Carol penned the letter sometime in the wee hours while Therese slept. Abby hands Therese an envelope containing the letter at breakfast. Therese scurries outside to open and read Carol’s communication.

Carol and Therese are deeply in love with one another at this point. Where else are they? Years ago, Carol confessed to Harge a prior affair with Abby, yet he remains obsessed with Carol. He and his wealthy family are not going to have it, thus the blackmail. To this point in time, Therese has been confused sexually, and her magnetic attraction to the beautiful, polished Carol handed her heaven and hell in a single day, New Year’s actually. Carol still wants to fight for her daughter. This correspondence is her heartfelt attempt to explain her departure to her beloved Therese.

I can only imagine an educated woman at four or five in the morning perching over a dimly lit hotel room table while laboring to compose such a message. She is distracted and distraught; the three trite phrases from above are not only excused; they are wonderfully realistic. They get her started.

As to the middle of the letter, Carol already knows her Therese quite well. Therese is strong-willed and goal-oriented, but she had a challenging and unloved upbringing leaving her emotionally fragile. Carol is sure their love is mutual; she knows the girl will be heartbroken. Carol tries to cushion the blow and imbue her lover’s spirit. Does Carol actually think they will eventually be together? I don’t think she does, but it is too painful to eliminate the possibility. I think Carol wrote the following sentence as much for herself as for Therese, “And when it happens, I want you to imagine me there to greet you, our lives stretched out ahead of us, a perpetual sunrise.”

Now the break, the ending, the close… the ouch. Carol is a daunting force. She is thick-skinned. This final paragraph is cold. For Carol, it has to be. All that said, she believes in Therese and trusts that “my angel” “flung out of space” will soar (pardon my two quotes from other parts of the film). If they haven’t already, the letter’s last three words will become screenwriting legend, the wistful, “I release you.”

Watch the movie Snidely.


End file.
